PHILADELPHIA — Nerlens Noel’s career with the 76ers, all 24 hours of it, has become a numbers game: How many months until he’s cleared to play? How many games will he miss? How many hours daily is he rehabbing that surgically repaired left knee?

Those numbers are of little consequence to Sixers general manager Sam Hinkie, though.

“The most important for sure should be the long-term safety and protection of our player. Nothing else matters as much as that matters,” Hinkie said Tuesday, when the Sixers introduced Noel in a press conference at their practice facility at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine.

“As this plays out, we will give (Noel) all of the resources necessary and all of the best medical people we can put in front of him … to try to get him on the floor to be the best player he can be for himself and for the Sixers.”

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Noel, for whom the Sixers traded with New Orleans, is expected to miss the first two to three months of the season while rehabbing a torn ACL in his left knee. He’s being counted on as the centerpiece of the team’s rebuilding process, as a 6-10 rookie center and as a skilled defensive player whose offensive game needs polish.

Still, the Sixers aren’t looking to Noel for an as-soon-as-possible return, Hinkie said. They are comfortable giving the 19-year-old, who entered the draft after his freshman season at Kentucky, as much time as he needs to fully rehabilitate.

Hinkie said he and Noel plan to meet today with Brian Sennett, an orthopaedic surgeon at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital, to learn as much as possible about Noel’s injury. Like, you know, a timetable for his return, perhaps?

“Generally, our best medical professionals find some sort of data and they back it up and put in checkpoints,” Hinkie said. “They say, ‘Let’s get to here and ask a lot of questions — how do you feel? Is it swollen? What have you been doing to it now? Let’s examine it. Let’s do an MRI.’ They’ll do a number of those things and if the answer is good, then they say, ‘Let’s ramp it up and see you in a month,’ and you do that again and again.”

So … has Noel gotten to the first checkpoint?

“We haven’t gotten to the first one even yet,” Hinkie said.

When healthy, Noel can give the Sixers what Andrew Bynum couldn’t last season — a dominant defensive presence and an offensive option in the middle. Noel led the nation last year with 4.4 blocks per game, before suffering the ACL tear Feb. 12. He averaged 10.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per game, winning SEC Defensive Player and Freshman of the Year honors.

Noel has been rehabbing up to six hours a day with well-known orthopaedic surgeon James Andrews in Birmingham, Ala., where his knee surgery was performed. He said his knee, which is “at the four-and-a-half-month point” of rehab, has not kept him from conducting layup drills. He’s also been running the floor, doing squat exercises and getting in cardio workouts on an Alter-G antigravity treadmill.

“As far as to when I’ll come back, I’m being careful with it, taking it day by day,” Noel said. “I’m making a lot of progress, I’m definitely staying focused on it and when I feel ready to play and come back, both physically and mentally, then I’ll make that step toward coming back.”

In part, Noel’s injury landed him with the Sixers. Deemed a health risk by a few teams, Noel slid to No. 6 in the June 27 NBA draft, where New Orleans scooped him up. The Pelicans traded Noel and a top-five-protected first-round pick in the 2014 draft to the Sixers for All-Star point guard Jrue Holiday and a second-round choice in the 2013 draft.

Getting traded to Philly reunites Noel with Syracuse point guard Michael Carter-Williams, the 11th overall pick. Playing alongside MCW, a former AAU teammate, quelled the tension Noel said he felt by slipping in the draft order.

“I mean, Sam is just a genius,” Noel said of Hinkie. “How do you think of something like that — have two players who played AAU together and already have a great relationship? From point guard to big man, you’ve got to put a lot of thinking in that.”

That thinking has translated to Noel’s post-surgery care, and protecting an asset the Sixers figure to have for a long time.